White fly and African Violets
Posted by Kimm
from 4a/5b-MI
on 2002-02-20 07:34:29

The best way to control White Fly is with insecticidal soap, but African Violets don't like getting their leaves wet. Yellow sticky traps can help control these guys that have a life span of about 20 to 30 days but that won't get the nymphs which emerge from the eggs about 2 gays after being laid ready to do damage. Check the undersides of the leaves for eggs and squish those. You could try dabbing with a cotton swab and rubbing alchohol but that is pretty tedious. The rest of the stuff you could use is too toxic for use in the house.

Thanks for the info. Not getting the leaves of African violets wet is, I believe, an "old wives tale." It is only a problem if the plants are in the sun, when they then develope burns from the heated water. I have watched the folks at the Lyons greenhouses in upstate NY water their plants, including seedlings, with a spray nozzle on a hose. The houses have their glass "whitewashed" and the seedlings are under fluorescent lamps below the main benches.Lyons has been a commercial grower for more than 50 years, perhaps 75.